


SANTIJPG´S SEQUEL TRILOGY REWRITE

by santijpg



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25636282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/santijpg/pseuds/santijpg
Summary: I started working on this like months ago and i decided i have written too much to just let it linger on private. So i´m posting it here.THE NEW REPUBLIC HAS ENJOYED FORTY YEARS OF RELATIVE PEACE AFTER THE GALACTIC CIVIL WAR. UNTIL NOW.THE GALACTIC SENATE IS DIVIDED BETWEEN THE CENTRALISTS AND THE ALLIANCEISTS, AND THEY STAND AT THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR. MEANWHILE, THE FIRST ORDER, ONE OF THE IMPERIAL FACTIONS TO SURVIVE THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE, PLOTS TO PROFIT OFF THE CHAOS.THE NEW JEDI ORDER IS NOW UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF BEN ORGANA, THE SON OF WAR HEROS LEIA ORGANA AND HAN SOLO, AFTER THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF LUKE SKYWALKER. THE JEDI ORDER HAS DECLARED THEIR NEUTRALITTY, LEAVING THEM ON THE SIDELINES OF GALACTIC POLITICS. BUT WHAT DOES BEN ORGANA PLAN?IN THIS CLIMATE, GENERAL LEIA ORGANA, LEADER OF THE RESISTANCE, SENDS POE DAMERON AND ROSE TICO TO A MISSION ON JAKKU. THEY ARE TO RETRIEVE DATA FROM AN OLD ALLY THAT COULD BE VITAL TO THE RESISTANCE.MAY THE FORCE BE WITH THEM! THEY WILL NEED IT.
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Poe Dameron could clearly see Jakku through the window of the spaceship. He would arrive to that gray and brown planet soon enough.

Until now the journey had gone smoother than most of his missions. Perhaps too smoothly, but maybe Poe just felt weird because he wasn´t using his X-2 Wing. The small, yet bigger than an starfighter, New Republic ship felt a little too heavy and slow for Poe. Nothing he couldn´t handle, but it was unusual after years of pretty much only flying his starfigther.

Poe´s thoughts were interrupted by beeping of his astromech droid, BB-8, who was to the side of Poe´s seat.  
Poe liked to take him on missions even when it wasn´t strictly necessary, and had taken some affection to the small droid. The droid was spherical and orange and white.

“So, we are arriving?” said Rose Tico, entering the cabin. Rose was a technician of the Resistance, there to decrypt the data on the ship´s computers. While she wasn´t an expert on decryption, she had some training on it, and the mission had been deemed important enough to have someone specifically be in charge of the decryption. Leia had probably wanted to get more people on the mission, but the Resistance didn´t have a particularly big membership. He and Rose had barely talked during the journey.

Rose was a few years younger than Poe and wore a one piece blue jumpsuit with the Resistance´s symbol in one arm. She had black hair she kept on a ponytail. As she entered the cabin she looked through one of the windows at the stars.

Having someone on board without combat training seemed like a bad idea. The Resistance was chronically understaffed, forcing most members to perform a fairly large number of roles and jobs. And it didn´t help that the Senate just kept on defunding the Resistance.

“Yeah, everything alright down there?”

“Yes… it´s just… I’ve got a bad feeling about this” said Rose. She lacked the accent of someone born and raised on the Core Worlds. Although Poe had been born in the Outer Rim, on Yavin 4, he had spent most of his life in the Core Worlds.

“I’m sure everything will be f-“before Poe could finish talking, the ship´s radar began beeping quickly.

He checked it to see that various starfigthers were approaching the ship. He frowned and Rose began to hold on an empty chair.

“Uh, that doesn´t seem good” she said.

“Alright, remain calm” said Poe, seeing the ships appear from the windows. It was a dozen of small starfigthers, red and black with the First Order symbol on them. What was the First Order doing there? Had someone given them information on the mission? He started the comlink and tried to send a message to the ships. “Unidentified ships, please identify yourselves“

There was no answer at all. Poe started to repeat the message, but then the starfigthers fired.

Poe barely had time to react when the ships began to fire, but he managed to dodge almost every turbolaser. Almost. Rose let out a scream as they heard it hit the ship, shaking it uncontrollably for a few moments. First Order starfigthers were supposed to be slower than New Republic ships, how had they done that?

“I- how bad is the shot?!” screamed Rose. Poe checked the screen with the ship´s status, at the same time as he dodged more turbolasers. The shot had hit one of the wings. There was no way Poe could outrun the starfigthers with a damaged ship.

“Uh-not great. Gonna have to do an emergency landing. Don´t worry, they don´t call me the Resistance´s best pilot for nothing!” At least he hoped they didn’t as he began descending. Rose strapped herself to the chair as BB-8 beeped advice on what to do. The starfigthers kept following and firing.  
Poe could see the village on the distance as he abruptly descended. He directed the ship towards an small hill, trying to not think of the smoke that covered the left side of the windows.

The ship got on the ground, sliding several meters before stopping entirely. Poe let out a sigh and got up from the chair at the same time as Rose.

“We need to get out of here, fast!” said Poe, starting to run out of the cabin and towards the nearest ship exit. He had no time to think, only time to do.

“D-do I follow?” she asked, just as she ran behind him. Bb-8 also went at her side.

“Yes!” said Poe as he got out of the ship. He could see the village on the distance. He began to run towards it.

FN-2187 was surrounded by other stormtroopers. All of them wore the exact same white armor. No one who looked at them would be able to tell them apart, as it had to be. They were inside a ship which moved ever so slightly as it travelled to the site of the mission. They had all been standing for some time, maybe a few hours or more. No one talked, no one complained.

Soon they would do their first mission. FN-2187 was excited about it, he was happy to be of help to the First Order, to contribute.  
Or at least he was supposed to be.

His emotions didn´t matter to the First Order or the mission, so there wasn´t much reason to have much of an opinion on anything. It was all irrelevant, secondary as long as he performed his duties.

Although, what would the mission consist of? They had only been given the most minimal details. There was a Rebellion operation on Jakku, an Outer Rim world that belonged to neither faction. They were to help stop it.

But whatever was expected of him, FN-2187 would be ready to do it, as he was a good soldier. Captain Phasma thought he was a good soldier, and Captain Phasma was a wise leader.

The ship stopped, and the moments it took for it to open were very, very long. He had been training for this all of his life, he could do it. He stepped out of the ship along with everyone else.

They were on the outskirts of some sort of village, most of the place being made of scrap metal and other precarious materials, probably obtained from scavenging. The streets were made of the grey dirt of Jakku. It was nothing at all like the civilized First Order cities FN-2187 only had limited exposure to. There wasn’t a single civilian that FN-2187 could see, but there were probably some up ahead.

Captain Phasma walked in.  
She wore a special silver stormtrooper armor, made to be especially resistant to blaster shots. She wore a crimson cape. Phasma was the leader of the stormtrooper army and the creator of the stormtrooper program various years ago. She was one of the greatest First Order leaders.

“Go! Look!” shouted Captain Phasma as she got on front of them, and they all started to advance.

* * *

Rose was a technician. Not a soldier, not some hero, a technician. She spent her days preventing fires in the Resistance Station and cataloguing tools.

So why was she suddenly on a crucial mission, running from the First Order?

She was running next to Poe, entering the village. He seemed a much better fit for this kind of mission; he was skilled and quick, somewhat like Paige. If Paige was there she would know what to do, but she wasn´t.

She shouldn´t have accepted the mission, she could have refused it. But she had accepted it, because she wanted to help the Resistance however she could. And now the First Order would kill her.

They could see the ships coming from the sky as they entered the village. Various villagers with weapons were on the streets, although it seemed most were inside their houses. One of them got close to them and gestured for them to follow, which they did.

They went towards an small hut made of scavenged metal, not particulary different from all the others.

“Everything will be fine” said Poe to Rose as they entered the house.

It was a single room house, with only the bare minimum of furniture and objects which showed that a person lived there. In a chair close to the entrance there was an old man, Wedge Antilles. He was wearing a brown cloak and a simple tunic, and he had a datadisk, a small metal circle, on his hand. He had a blaster pistol on his other hand. He looked at nothing in particular, his chin on his hand.

“Hey there” he said. Wedge had come out of retirement to perform this last mission. He deserved to have a nice retirement on the Core Worlds, not having to go on missions to distant junk planets.

“Do you have the information? We need to hurry to get out of here” said Poe, getting closer to him. Rose stayed back. Just then, blaster shoots started on the distance. She tried to not think about it, to focus on this.

“Yes, it is very important. Wish we had more time, but I’ve ran out of luck” said Wedge, giving Poe the datadisk. Poe quickly went to the door, but Wedge did not follow him. “I´ll stay here, you need to get out”

“But-but we can´t leave you here” said Poe.

“I wouldn´t have gotten this old if I couldn´t take care of myself” said Wedge.

He stopped for a moment to look at Wedge and then crossed the door, but Rose stayed behind.

She looked at Wedge Antilles, at a Rebellion hero. Neither she nor Poe had time to think about Wedge, they had to get out. She didn´t have time to think about a good man dying. Just like he hadn´t had time to think of all everyone else in Hays Minor.

She went out of the house and began to run.

* * *

Chaos, it was chaos.

The First Order advanced as the villagers shoot back or fled. FN-2187 could only think of keeping advancing, to keep going along with the other stromtroopers. He wasn´t shooting but no one seemed to have noticed.

One blaster shot almost hit FN-2187´s head and he ran towards a house, covering using the wall. There he would be safe from the shooting.  
Another stomtrooper ran towards FN-2187. FN-2187 tried to make the gesture but then the other stormtroopers was shot in the neck, falling to the floor.  
For a moment, FN-2187 watched, not moving. Then he ran towards the stomtrooper, not thinking of the fight, not thinking of the danger.

Blood stained the otherwise perfectly white armor. The stomtrooper was still alive as FN-2187 got there, kneeling next to them. They tried to contain the blood loss of their wound with their hands but they weren´t successful. FN-2187 couldn´t do anything.

The other stomtroopers reached out with their bloodied hand, touching FN-2187´s helmet. Then they stopped moving, forever. Finn could only watch as the hand fell to the floor.  
Why was he there, trying to do something? He was soldier. He wasn´t supposed to care for his comrades, he wasn´t supposed to put himself in danger for no reason. But he had. Suddenly, the villager´s screams were very clear to his ears.

“What are you doing there, soldier? Keep going, now!” screamed a voice, somewhere at FN-2187´s side. Finn didn´t want to keep going, he wanted to stay there and not move. But he somehow got on his feet and kept going.

Poe kept running until he tripped on something, almost falling to the floor. At the same time he heard the sound of another ship descending. He regained balance and looked back.

Rose and BB-8 were running towards him. And behind them, a ship descended. For a moment, Poe didn´t recognize it. But then he realized. It was a Star Destroyer.  
There were probably less than a hundred Star Destroyers left on the whole Galaxy, and now the First Order had one. How? And it´s doors opened, Kylo Ren coming out of them, surrounded by a dozen of stormtroopers. Poe remained running.

Quickly, they reached the outside of the village. They were around piles of rocks and piles of trash. Poe looked around, thinking of what to do. He had no ship now.

“What, what are we going to do?” said Rose. In that moment, they saw a big squad of stomtroopers coming in their direction. Poe put a hand on his blaster, but he knew he couldn´t take them all on. He looked back, only to see more of them. They were surrounded.

He quickly gave Rose the data disk. “Put the data on BB-8, I´ll buy us time” he said. Rose nodded and went to the droid.  
He began to shoot at the stormtroopers, trying to shield Rose with his body. They didn´t shoot back, and Poe managed to take down a few, but soon they were surrounded. One stomtrooper went over and hit his arm with their blaster, throwing the weapon to the floor.

“Come with us” said the stomtrooper .Poe looked around. He could only see stomtroopers around him. There was no way of escaping. Had Rose even managed to transfer the data?

He looked down and stayed quiet as the stormtroopers handcuffed him and Rose. There was no use getting killed there. He would have to come up with a plan soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Was Poe going to die that day, only after a few years of being a Resistance fighter? No, he wouldn´t think that, he had gotten out of worse situations through the years. He could do it. 

The stormtroopers had picked him up and taken his blaster and the datadisk away. He could hear screams and blaster shoots, and he was surrounded by fire. Such senseless cruelty… and Poe was unable to do anything about it. They had to restrain Rose as she kept struggling and cursing them out, but Poe kept walking. An attempt to escape while surrounded by stormtroopers would most likely go very badly. 

They got him to Kylo Ren as he talked with Wedge, also being held by stomtroopers. They were behind them, but soon they would be interrogated too. All around them there were burning or completely destroyed houses. 

Ren was surrounded by around a dozen of stormtroopers, with one on silver armor and a cape being a little behind him. Captain Phasma, Poe recognized her from intelligence reports. 

Kylo Ren was a figure dressed in red, his mask and clothes hiding all psychical details of him. He looked like a perversion of the various Jedi Poe has seen through his life. 

“-how far you have fallen, boy” said Wedge. Poe could not see his expression from where he was. Kylo got closer to Wedge, holding his lightsaber. Did Wedge know Kylo Ren´s true identity? The identity of the leader of the Knights of Ren had been a mystery that had escaped the Republic since he appeared one year ago. 

“Do not call me that, old man” 

“Your parents won´t be proud of you-“ started to said Wedge, before Ren activated his lightsaber. Kylo Ren raised his lightsaber, but stopped for a moment, as if hesitating. Then with one fast hit, Wedge was dead, his head separated from his body. Poe and Rose both loooked wide eyed at the corpse. A Rebellion hero had just died. 

Then Kylo Ren looked at him. His mask didn´t allow Poe to see his expression, but Poe knew he was really mad. However, Poe kept staring at Wedge´s corpse on the floor. 

Ren got closer to him without deactivating the lightsaber. Was that hoe he was going to die, killed by a Darth Vader wanna-be? Not in a fight, but in an execution? Would his mother be proud that he died trying to protect the Republic? Well, he would find out soon. 

One of the stormtroopers passed Ren the datadisk. Ren raised it on the air with the Force and crushed it, letting the remains fall to the floor. Poe did his best to look shocked and despairing… BB-8 still had a copy of the data, they could keep going with the mission. 

“Hey, where did you get that helmet? Uh, looks kind of… bad” said Poe, with an attempt at a cocky smile. It wasn´t the best day for his ability to insult people. He tried to ignore the corpse on the floor. Ren did not answer. “Did they never tell you the Darth Vader look got out of sty-“ 

Ren let out a scream and extended his hand. Poe´s head hurt, it hurt worse than any pain he had ever been in. It was like if that ligthsaber went through his head and it burned at the same time. And he could feel his presence, Ren´s presence, there, trying to break the walls of his mind. 

“Stop! Leave him alone, you murderer, you piece of-“ shouted Rose, and Poe barely heard her, too concentrated on his pain.

He somehow managed to contain the scream he wanted to let out; he would not give Ren that satisfaction. He fell to his knees, and then, suddenly, like that, it ended. The pain ended. Poe gasped, realizing he was now covered in sweat. Rose stared at him wide eyed, a pair of stormtroopers restraining her.

“Take him and the other to the ship, I shall interrogate him later. Leave the body of that old man here” said Kylo Ren, regaining composure. The stormtroopers dragged him and Rose to the ship. As they were dragged, they both stared at Wedge´s fallen corpse. 

The battle, or perhaps attack would be a more accurate term, had ended. The sounds of blaster shots had ended, and now the sound of fire and the smell of smoke filled the village. Most of the houses were either destroyed or on the process of being destroyed by fire. FN-2187 was around various other stomtroopers, standing and waiting for orders. He could see various First Order soldiers entering the ships, they would leave soon. 

A group of prisoners, surrounded by stomtroopers, came from one street. They were led by Captain Phasma and surrounded by a squad of stormtroopers. 

“Stormtroopers, execute these prisoners, quickly” ordered Phasma, pointing to the group Finn was in. The First Order didn´t usually take prisoners.

FN-2187 readied his blaster rifle, but then he looked at the prisoners. They looked resigned with their fate, none of them looked outright sad. They had given up. FN-2187 had been told than any enemy of the First Order was evil and weak, that he should not care for them. But that wasn´t right… was it? 

They screamed as the blaster shots hit them. 

He thought of the other stomtrooper, bleeding from the neck. Their fading presence. And now the villagers were dead, and that was wrong, he couldn´t participate in that. He did not pull the trigger.

“Now go to the ship” said Phasma, beginning to walk towards it. Everyone followed, even FN-2187, somehow. But he didn’t want to go; he wanted to run away, to leave this, to not have to see another life taken. 

But instead he walked, he walked towards the ship. Hopefully the helmet would hide his emotions. 

He reached the inside of the ship and went towards the living quarter section. He separated off the other stomtroopers and went into an empty white hallway. He took off his helmet without thinking, it suddenly felt very heavy to wear. He stayed there for some moments, staring at a wall. 

“Why did you not fire your blaster?” said a voice behind him. FN-2187 turned to see Captain Phasma. 

“It malfunctioned, Captain, I am sorry” malfunctions were relatively common in the First Order; a lot of the equipment was old. Although lately they had gotten better things, it still wasn´t unheard off. FN-2187 knew he shouldn´t lie to Phasma, but frankly, he didn´t care there. 

“Understood. But you should not take your helmet off without authorization, you must remember that” she said. She got closer. FN-2187 was unable to tell what she felt; it was all hidden by that armor. “You are very promising, but do not let that potential go to waste. I will be keeping attention in your performance. Later, I want you to go to reeducation” 

“Understood” answered FN-2187. Then Phasma put a hand in FN-2187´s shoulder. What? Psychical contact was very uncommon between stormtroopers, they were meant to be only soldiers, not caring about anything else. Everything else was a distraction. It lasted barely a moment, and then she backed away. 

“You will do great things someday, soldier” she said. 

Phasma then walked away to another place. FN-2187 stood there, not moving, for a few moments. Then he realized what was to be done. 

He had to desert. 

Shortly after being moved to the ship, Poe had been separate from Rose and BB-8 and had been taken to a room, where he had been strapped to a cold durasteel plank inside a room. After that, he had been left alone there. 

The room was completely white and immaculate, with no windows and no furniture other than the plank. Once in a while Poe could hear the faint sound of footsteps. Poe had no way to count the time, but he calculated he had been left there for an hour or two. 

Poe tried to not think of the reports on what the First Order did to the few prisoners it took, he tried to not think about how Rose was also in danger, he tried to not think about how everyone who knew him would react. There had to be a way out of this, he just needed to figure it out. But he couldn´t think of anything for the time being. 

Poe was almost grateful when the door opened, as at least it meant a change in cicrumstances. 

It was Kylo Ren who entered. He walked to be in front of him, looking at him in the eyes. They were like that for a few moments, completely silent. 

“The room service in this place is terrible, they didn´t even give me a proper bed” said Poe. Ren just stared at him. 

“You will not make me lose control of my emotions” 

“Hard to make you lose something you don´t have” Ren´s fist impacted the plank at the right of Poe´s head, and immediately after he produced a little grunt of pain. 

“It doesn´t have to be this way. You can join me, join the First Order. You would be a good asset, you would be at the winners side” said Ren. Something about the man was… familiar, like he had meet him before. But there was no time to think about that. 

“Hm, how many credits do you pay?” answered Poe, smirking. “My parents were Rebellion heroes, I have worked for the New Republic all my life, I will never join you imperials” 

“A shame. I thought you were a smarter man… Dameron. The First Order will win and destroy the New Republic… if it doesn´t destroy itself first” said Ren, beginning to slowly walk around the room. For a moment, Poe thought he heard some actual sadness in Ren´s voice. Was he really expecting to recruit him into the First Order? How stupid was he? 

“Yeah, what are you going to do? Suicide bomb every New Republic world? You are weak compared to the Republic, you wouldn´t last in a week of all-out war. Even if you kill me you will be defeated” 

Ren chuckled, and Poe couldn´t help but feel shivers down his spine. Did Ren know something Poe did not? 

“There is a lot you do not know, Dameron. Do not worry, soon it will not bother you” said Ren, getting close to Poe again. “Now, let’s begin”


	3. Chapter 3

Poe lost track of time while Kylo interrogated him. It wasn´t so bad this time, a combination of Poe´s training and Ren trying to not kill him. He still ended up with an intense headache and covered in sweat. But Ren had utterly failed at extracting any information from him. 

“I shall leave for now, I hope you will reconsider your choices” had said Kylo as he left. 

Poe was then left alone again. Eventually, someone would come feed him, and then he would improvise some kind of plan to free himself and return to New Republic territory… at least that´s what he told himself. 

After a while of thinking of possible plans, the door opened. A single stomtrooper entered, curiously, they had one blaster rifle on their hands and two on their waist. Poe slightly frowned as he saw the stormtrooper. 

“Oh, room service? You took your time” commented Poe. The stomtrooper quickly went to the plank and pressed a button on the side of it, freeing Poe. He almost fell to the floor as he was freed, not expecting that. 

“C´mon, we don´t have much time” said the stormtrooper, giving Poe the second blaster. What? Before Poe had the chance to ask questions, the stomtrooper left the room, and Poe followed. 

“Well, this wasn´t expected, but it is welcome” said Poe. They were walking in what seemed like the prison section of the ship, with various cells. 

Poe stopped walking. “Alright, hold on, before we continue, I need you to explain to me who you are. Now” he said. 

In response, the stormtrooper took off his helmet and let it fall to the floor. He wasn´t anyone Poe recognized, he was a man a few years younger than him with dark brown skin and very short hair. Poe had always thought stormtrooper would be fairly ugly considering they always hid behind that armor, but that man wasn´t bad looking. 

“I am deserting, and taking you with me. We need to do this fast” explained the stormtrooper. Poe blinked a few times. A stormtrooper deserting? He had never heard of such a thing. Could it be some kind of First Order trap? 

“Well… alright, let´s continue” said Poe. They continued walking for some moments. 

“I prepared a shuttle for us” explained the stormtrooper. As he said that, they reached an elevator. The stomtrooper went to call it, but Poe interrupted him. 

“Hold on, we need to get Rose. And BB-8” The stomtrooper looked at him for a moment. 

“Their loss would be a shame, but wouldn´t it be better for the mission to let them behind?” 

“I can´t let innocent people here” said Poe. The stomtrooper walked through another hallway. 

They walked for a little while, thankfully not finding any other soldiers. It seemed every cell except Poe´s was empty. All of them were small white rooms locked by transparent forcefields. Eventually they reached Rose´s cell, inside which she was sitting. 

“Oh, Poe, you are free! And it seems you got someone” said Rose, getting closer to the exit of the cell. She seemed to be unhurt. The stomtrooper wrote something on the panel next to the cell and it opened. 

“Are you alright? Did they do something?” said Poe, entering the cell. Rose gave a small smile. 

“No, I’m just a technician so they didn´t care about me… pretty sure I heard someone mention something about dumping the useless prisoner through an airlock, though” 

“Fast, we need to get out of here. The droid must be in another place” said the stomtrooper, starting to go. Rose and Poe followed him. 

They went to the elevator and ascended to another floor. They went through another pristine white hallway, they went through another one, and then they saw a pair of stomtroopers. 

“Hey, what is the meaning of this? Why are these prisoners outside their cells? Why do they have blasters?” said one of them, walking towards them. 

“I can explain, you see…“started to say their stormtrooper. 

“Well?” asked the other stormtrooper. 

“Uh” the stormtrooper on their side said, before Poe took his blaster started shooting at the pair. They tried to draw their blasters, but it was too late. They fell to the floor dead. “Oh”

“Well, we better hurry” said Rose, starting to run. Their stomtrooper looked at the dead bodies for a split second before continuing to advance. 

“By the way, what´s your name?” asked Poe as they ran. 

“What?” answered the stomtrooper. 

“You have a name, don´t you?” said Rose. 

“My designation is FN-2187” 

“Sounds like Finn to me” said Poe. As he said that, they reached a hallway with only one big door, on top of it there were the words “COMMUNICATIONS ROOM” 

“Finn, I… I like that” commented Finn, stopping to the side of the room. “If you want to send a message, this is the place, but we´ll have to leave quickly. Your droid must be near here” 

“Open the door” 

Finn opened the door. There was various machinery and a few people in First Order uniforms. Poe entered with his blaster raised. 

“Nobody try anything, get on the floor” said Poe. The people looked at him for a moment before getting down on the floor. 

Poe got over to a terminal and began the preparations to send the transmission. “Rose, Finn, get BB-8, I’ll send a message to the Resistance and catch up with you” 

“Understood” said Finn, leaving the room, followed by Rose. Poe quickly began to work on the transmission. 

He recorded himself detailing his situation, and moments before he finished sending it the place filled with red light and an alarm sound. He ran off the room to get to Rose and Finn again. 

On the way he found a few dead stomtroopers, until he got to another hallway where Rose, Finn and BB-8 were. 

“The shuttles are near, c´mon” said Finn, again running off. As they ran, they were found by a group of stomtroopers. The stomtroopers began to fire as they saw the group, and Fin and Poe fired back, with Rose taking cover behind a wall. 

Then they saw the hallways beginning to be blocked by descending durasteel doors. Without a word, they began to run again. 

They just barely managed to reach the shuttles bay without anyone being hurt. Finn accessed the shuttle´s terminals and did a hand gesture to indicate that everyone get in one. 

They were somewhat uncomfortable with the small size of the shuttle but did not care. The shuttle was expelled from the ship along with a dozen of empty ones. 

Various empty shuttles begin destroyed by the ship´s cannons. At time it seemed they would be hit, and the debris from one of the destroyed shuttles actually hit them, almost making Poe scream… but soon they were outside the range of the cannons, falling to Jakku´s surface instead. The damage to the shuttle had been minimal. He let out a small sigh. 

After the shuttle impacted the floor, Finn lost consciousness for a few seconds. As soon as he came to again, he knew he had to escape, he had to escape fast. A good soldier preserved his life, as it was useful to the mission. He didn´t check his surroundings, he just went through a hole in the shuttle, collapsing into the dirt. 

Poe. What had happened to Poe? He got up and watched what was around him. 

“Hey” said Poe, who was laying on the floor at his left. BB-8 was close to him, and Rose just came out tumbling from the fallen shuttle. Finn let out a sigh, just as the shuttle fell, consumed by Jakku´s dirt.

Finn walked over to Poe and sat on the floor, letting out an exhausted sigh. He stayed there for a few moments, just taking in what had happened in the last few hours. 

They had landed in an area of grey hills, completely empty except for what seemed like some kind of outpost in the distance to the east and various piles of junk. The green sky was filled with black clouds. 

“So, what do we do now?” asked Finn. 

“Well, I say we begin by walking there” said Poe, pointing at the outpost in the distance. “Don´t worry, I sent a message to the Resistance. Surely they will pick us up in no time”

“Yes, sounds like a good plan” said Finn. He wasn´t sure of what he would do in the long term, but probably it would be best to stick with this man for the time being, at least until the resistance took them. Then he could run away to whatever planet was farther away from the First Order… maybe with Poe. Yesterday the resistance had been his enemy, and now they were his only hope. 

“I wish you had told me we had a double agent in the stormtroopers, it was scary in that cell” said Rose, pointing at Finn. Finn looked down, and Poe covered his mouth with his hand. “What´s so funny?” 

“Uh, I’m not a double agent. I just deserted to save both of you” said Finn. Rose didn´t react for a moment and then her eyes widened.  
“You… a stomtrooper… deserted? Stomtroopers can do that?” said Rose, putting her hands on her hips. She then turned to Poe “Are you sure, are you sure it´s such a good idea to have a former member of the fascist organization we are fighting with us? How do we know he isn´t a double agent for the First Order?”  
“Finn´s a good guy, I can tell. A double agent wouldn´t have done all that. Just trust me” said Poe. Poe believed in Finn… that was nice. Finn would probably have had the same doubts of himself if he was on Rose´s situation.  
“Hm… alright, but I’ll keep an eye on him, just in case” said Rose. BB-8 beeped something.  
Poe got up and started walking, so Finn and Rose followed him. 

General Leia Organa, leader of the Resistance, considered the news. Poe and a technician had been captured, but managed to escape to an Outer Rim world called Jakku with another person. Now she had to convince the Galactic Senate to send a rescue mission.

She was in front of a holographic projector, that was on an empty room at the Resistance base, her call would begin soon.

It was like the Rebellion (had it already been forty years?) all over again; just that now she was even less respected. All the political influence she had obtained through the years had disappeared with the revelation of her being Vader´s daugther, now she was barely tolerated by the Senate. Could she ever truly rest?

As leader of the Resistance Leia answered directly to the Senate, the Resistance being the New Republic´s only quasi-military organization. It was formed mainly of Rebellion veterans, although lately it had been gaining more members. But not enough, not enough. 

The hologram call began. It showed the room of the senate, chancellor Holdo in the center. It was still smaller than the room of the Old Republic, perhaps it would never regain the same size. Still there were representatives for dozens and dozens of worlds and varied species all around the room.

And there was an invisible line which separated members from each other, separated them into three factions: Allied, Neutrals and Centralists. Once the Senate had been a symbol of unity and peace, and now that was falling apart.

“Greetings, commander Organa” said the chancellor. In the New Republic it was mostly a useless title, with little real power, but it did have symbolic value. Holdo was a Neutral, mostly there to try to keep the peace within the Senate. She was increasingly less successful at it.

“Greetings, I am afraid I bring worrying news” said Leia, using her best politician voice. She then proceeded to explain the situation.

“Those are disturbing news… but we did not authorize that mission. You do realize this could easily lead us to war with the First Order, right?” said Borks Fey´lya, the Bothan senator. Leia prepared herself to have the same discussion she had every few weeks for the last few years.

“This represented a possible threat to the republic, it was a necessary evil. It had to be done quickly, I could not wait for all of you to give me authorization. If the First Order attacks, we need to be ready, we needed that information” said Leia. “Besides, I do not need to ask for permission before every mission, that was agreed years ago”

“The First Order will not attack us, they know they would lose” said Zygli Bruss, senator of Candovant, crossing his arms. “Even if they did, they most likely would not win, as the restrictions put with the accords and their general lack of resources”

“But what about their expansionism in the Unknown Regions? Or the neutral and republic planets which have joined them?” said Leia.

“Those are unfortunate circumstances, but eventually meaningless in the long term. The First Order will dissolve in a decade or two” answered Thadlé Berenko from Naboo.

“Threats like this are why we need a United Army of the Republic, with a First Senator leading the Senate” said Lady Carise Sindian, leader of the Centralists. She had kept quiet until that moment, but now all the eyes were on her.

Carise was a human arkanian woman in her late thirties, not that much older than Leia´s son, and she was quite capable of causing a civil war on the New Republic. She was a member of one of the wealthiest families of Arkanis, which had become even wealthier during the Galactic Civil War, unlike many other people. Selling weapons was profitable. Although centralist sentiments always existed, Cerise had organized them into a faction decided to change the Republic, and a borderline violent one at that.

The Centralists wanted greater centralization of the New Republic, including the creation of an army and a new leader position of First Senator, and were very determinate to get those things. The Allied, of whom Leia was part of, wanted decentralization, opposing to the Centralists ideas.

“The Resistance and your United Army project are quite different things, lady Carise” Carise had been trying to recruit Leia into her ranks ever since the factions formed. She had not been successful.

Carise had been forming an army without the explicit approval of the Senate, and to many this was a preparation for civil war. The Allied were doing no such thing, although a few worlds were independently preparing for war. A civil war would be catastrophic for the New Republic, even after forty years it was a fragile state, merely a shadow of the Old Republic.

“We have gone astray from the subject, we must decide what to do with the soldiers situation” said Winter. Winter was one of Leia´s oldest friends, and the contact between the Senate and the New Republic intelligence service. Although she tried to be neutral, she did help Leia.

“Perhaps we should negotiate with the First Order, make some kind of exchange” said Holdo.

“What if we sent a Jedi to retrieve them?” said one of the senators. The New Jedi Order didn´t work like the old had, they didn´t regularly perform missions for the republic. Luke had, but he was a special one due to his involvement with the Rebellion. And now Luke was gone. “They are technically a neutral party; we can say they were acting without our direct permission if they fail”

“We should contact Ben Organa about this” said another one of the councilors. Ben Organa, Leia´s son, and the official contact between the republic and the New Jedi Order. He was a hope for the galaxy, a champion of the Jedi, and Leia was proud of him. He had filled Luke´s absence on the Jedi Order. Everyone agreed to contacting Ben.

After a few minutes, Ben joined the call. He was a man in his mid thirties wearing blue Jedi robes; he was bald and looked a lot like his parents. He gave a calm smile as his hologram appeared.

“Greetings” he said. Both his hologram and his voice were slightly distorted because of the distance. At time the colors in his hologram disappeared to be replaced with the blue old holograms had. He was currently in the Unknown Regions, on a confidential Jedi mission.

“Greetings as well” said Leia, and then proceeded to explain the situation again.  
“Hm, I see” said Ben. His expression didn´t show any emotion other than polite stoicism, not even a hint that he was talking to his mother. While this was a Senate meeting and not a family reunion, it was somewhat sad see him be like that. They had become distant in the last couple of years, as responsibilities piled on top of each one. He had barely called her ever since Luke disappeared and he started going on those Jedi missions. Even his Force presence seemed colder. “I believe I know who could exceed at this specific mission. I will send them soon enough and this will be resolved quickly”

“Excellent, the Jedi will take care of this issue. See General Organa, you have nothing to worry about” said Holdo. Ben unconnected without as much as saying goodbye.

After a few more minutes of discussion on the mission, Leia unconnected as well. Now Ben would take care of the rest.


	4. Chapter 4

The wooden staff hit the training droid and it fell to the floor. Her wooden staff hit the second training droid as it approached her from the side, and she Force pushed the third one who hadn´t even begun approaching. 

She was focused on the training, thinking only of her training weapon and her robotic opponents. She stopped for a moment for the new training droids to appear so she could continue, putting herself on a defensive position. 

“Apprentice Rey?” said a voice from behind her. She gasped a little, her concentration broken, and turned around to see who had said her name. 

It was Tresina Lobi, a Jedi master and one of the Jedi who had been the longest in the order. And she was talking to her. 

She was a human woman in her late fifties with short black hair. She wore a Jedi tunic. She had a calm smile in her face. Rey hadn´t seen her coming, she had been completely alone. She really had focused on her training.

“Ah, yes, that is me” answered Rey, trying to get all emotion out of her face and body language, while getting away from the training grounds. Both of them were in the training area of the New Jedi Temple´s gardens. They were surrounded by the small training area, there was a bigger one inside the temple, and the rest of the gardens. 

“Master Ben Organa has recommended you for a mission. You are free to not accept” said Tresina. Jedi Master as an official rank had been eliminated, but it was common to call Jedi who had been in the order for some time that. 

A mission? From Ben Organa, the apprentice of Luke Skywalker? She had to accept. She nodded, trying to hide her enthusiasm. 

The master began to walk and Rey followed her. The gardens were full of plants from various worlds, trees and plants of various colors and shapes. There were various Jedi in there, talking with each other or just walking around. In the background there was the Jedi Temple proper, a huge building. It´s architectural style and materials looked very recent. Uncomfortably recent. 

It had once been a small enclave of the original Jedi order that got restored and expanded by Master Luke Skywalker and others survivors of the original Jedi order. 

“Well, I accept it” repeated Rey. Just in case Tresina hadn´t gotten it. 

“I did not even tell you what the mission will consist of” said Tresina. “There are two resistance soldiers stranded on a neutral planet, Jakku. Your mission would be to retrieve them to safety” 

Jakku, where she had spent the first years of her life, scavenging and surviving. Before the Jedi found her. She looked down. It had been so many years… she had to focus on the present. 

“I could do it, even if it is my first mission I could do it” said Rey. The master put a hand on her shoulder. 

“Alright then, I hope your inexperience does not cause you harm. Although we are all inexperienced, are we not?” she said, giving a warm smile. “Come inside, we will call Ben Organa”

She would do it; she would rescue those soldiers and prove that she was a competent Jedi Knight. She could do it. 

They entered through the main entrance, big double doors that lead to a hall filled with holograms of various Jedi related things. They went close to the section of the temple where people who knew Jedi but were not Jedi stayed. Most didn´t stay all the time, but a lot of Jedi did not live all the time in the temple. The New Jedi Order was alright with attachments and familiar relationships. Although Rey didn´t have any of the second. 

They entered a big circular room with a hologram projector in the middle. A big glass window showed another section of the temple´s gardens. 

After a bit of waiting a hologram of Ben Organa appeared. 

“Greetings, apprentice Rey” he said. 

“Greetings, I was told you had suggested me for a mission” said Rey. Rey had never personally talked with him, only seen him around the Temple, but not for various years. First he had left on a various years long journey across the galaxy, and after that had ended he had gone to the Unknown Regions to do secret Jedi missions. 

“Yes. Two Resistance members are stranded on Jakku. This is an important mission, it´s uncommon for us to do missions for the Republic these days, you know?” 

“I understand. I am glad to accept this offer” said Rey. “But would it not make more sense to… send someone more experienced than me? I mean, I still do want to do it, but I wonder why me specifically” 

“Oh” answered Ben. He gave a strange smile for a moment. It looked artificial, but only for a moment. Perhaps it only had been Rey´s imagination. “I believe younger Jedi need experience in order for the order to grow big and strong. Anyways, me and the Resistance will provide you with a small ship to travel to Jakku.” 

“Understood. Will I be accompanied by someone else?”

“I think it is best if we keep this small and quick. Too many Jedi might complicate the situation. That would be… unpleasant” 

“Understood” 

“You know, Rey. I see promising things in the archives about you. This could be the start of you becoming a valuable member for the order” said Ben. That meant a lot coming from someone of such high status as him. She nodded a bit “We will discuss further missions once you come back from this one” 

They discussed more details of the mission for some time and then ended the call. 

A few hours later, Rey was on a ship to Jakku. 

General Armitrage Hux of the First Order was on a holocall. 

“So, let me see if I understand. You managed to capture the Resistance members. But they escaped. With a stomtrooper” said one of the Moffs, a human man in his late fifties. Hux did his best to hide his anger; this incident could destroy his entire military career. But how much he wished he could launch the Moffs out of an airlock. 

He was communicating with the Moff Council, the ruling body of the First Order. At his side was Captain Phasma, and they were both on a conference room. 

“This is my fault; I should have seen this coming from the stomtrooper. He had shown no dissident behavior before, I did not saw this coming” said Phasma. Hux did not like how that armor she wore all the time hid her expressions and body language. What else did she hide other than her emotions? 

“We will think of a suitable punishment” said another one of the moffs, a woman in her early forties. 

“We will recapture them soon enough, as of now we have various scout parties looking in Jakku for the escaped Rebellion terrorists” said Hux. 

“We might lessen your punishment if you do manage to recapture them. Keep us updated, this is an important mission” said another moff. 

“Had you trusted Kylo Ren more, this would not have happened. Now this entire operation is in grave danger” Hux clenched his fist behind his back. He hated the moff´s trust on that stupid wizard. 

“Understood. I will take care of this, and inform Sindian” said Hux. 

“Understood. Ending call” the holograms then banished. Phasma quickly left the room. 

Hux went over to the terminal and called Carise Sindian. After a few minutes, she answered. She had her arms crossed and was frowning. Another person who was mad at the current situation. 

“So you people have failed to stop the Resistance members” said Carise. She was so arrogant and annoying, typical New Republic member. Once the First Order destroyed the Rebellion, Hux would enjoy ordering her execution. 

“We are searching for them right now, do not worry” 

“I give you bran new weapons and technology, something that could at least get me thrown out of the Senate, and even then you can´t get rid of a few people” said Carise, pointing at him “I will have to advance in my plan more quickly” 

“I’m sure it will all work out. You will get your Republic, we will get out new territory” said Hux, giving his best fake smile. 

“Yes… we will see” answered Carise, giving a small smirk. She was arrogant enough to believe she could manipulate the First Order, use it and then leave it. Well, she was in for a surprise. 

Carise´s plan was to let the First Order do a series of attacks on the New Republic, using it as an excuse to push for greater centralization. Once she was in charge of the Republic, she would sign a new peace treaty with the First Order, in theory creating peace and order. But the First Order wasn´t planning to stop. 

The the First Order would bring in a new age of true freedom and true peace, not burdened by the weak concerns of the Rebellion. 

“Do you have any plans regarding the Resistance members?” 

“I do in fact. I will send some people to look for them” answered Carise. “Well, we will speak later. I have preparations to make”

“Goodbye” said Hux, ending the call. It was just question of time. 

Jakku had once been a mildly populated Outer Rim planet, fairly unremarkable, just another part of the Old Republic and afterwards the Empire, just another name on a list of planets. 

That was until the remaining imperial forces after the death of the Emperor decided to set base there, bent on restoring the Empire. 

Eventually, the young New Republic fought them and won, but the wounds of the Battle of Jakku still remained on the planet. The locals said that during the battle, ships completely blocked the sky on the entire planet, hiding the sun. 

Most of the local ecosystem collapsed due to the fighting and collateral damage, and the planet became a giant ruin. Even forty years after the battle a fallen Republic or Imperial ship could be found from time to time. And the other planets took notice of this, dumping their trash by the billions on the planet. Most of the survivors either left or became scavengers, forced to survive off the death of their planet. 

That was how scavenging became the mayor industry on Jakku, the junk world. Now it was populated entirely of small scavenging based communities, not a single big city on the entire planet. 

Finn, Poe and Rose had spent the last day on a nameless trade outpost, tense and waiting for the First Order to appear. Before that, they had spent a day walking without provisions of any kind. But the First Order had not appeared, although they had been looking at the sky every few minutes, expecting to see a First Order ship out to get them. 

They had promised the people at the outpost that they would pay once they were rescued, but the ones who had allowed them to sleep on a small tent in the outpost were getting impatient. If they were kicked out they wouldn´t know what to do, although Poe kept saying that everything would be fine. 

“So, what is that data you got?” asked Finn, while taking part in his new favorite hobbie of watching the sky for any spaceships. Beyond the outpost he could see what the locals called the starship graveyard, a section of the desert filled with the rests of ships and other military technology. 

He was sitting at the left of Poe, who was holding the data pad he got and looking at it. They were both on some wood stolls at the side of their tent. At their right, Rose was sitting on the floor, cleaning BB-8 with a piece of cloth. Rose spent pretty much all the time with some kind of piece of technology on her hands, perhaps a way to deal with the stress? That, or looking at Finn with a look of suspicion in her eyes.

Poe looked at him, slightly widening his eyes. They had barely talked in the time they had spent together. Finn enjoyed Poe´s presence, but he wasn´t used to talking to people. It wasn’t a good trait in stomtroopers, so he wasn´t sure of what he was supposed to talk about. 

Finn just hadn´t thought of asking Poe about the data before then, when he was somewhat bored. Stormtroopers weren´t meant to make many questions. 

“Oh, I have no idea” answered Poe. 

“You, you have no idea?” 

“It´s encrypted, apparently in some old Rebellion code” said Poe, looking a bit irritated “It seems I’m not trustworthy enough for them to let me know how to decrypt this” 

“Well, I guess we´ll find out if we ever get rescued” said Finn, as he watched a small ship descend into the floor. Not many ships came to the outpost, but it had some traffic, mostly in the form of scavengers with speeders. Maybe it was a Resistance ship…

“When we get rescued” corrected Poe. “You know, there´s this great bar in Honsian Prime, I’ll take you there once we get out of here”   
“That would be nice…May I go check out the ship?” 

“You… don´t need to ask me permission” said Poe, slightly squinting. Finn shaked his head a bit. 

“Old habits.” 

“Come back soon” said Rose, looking up from BB-8. 

Finn started to walk. The ship had landed west of where he had been. When he arrived, he saw that the ship was open and some aliens were surrounding a human woman in front of it. 

The woman was wearing what could only be a Jedi tunic and a brown cloak. She looked a few years younger than Finn and had brown hair tied in a bunch of buns. 

“-so, what are you doing here? Have any credits to share?” said one of the aliens, a Rodian. The woman showed no emotion in her face or body language, she just moved her cloak somewhat to show the lightsaber on her waist. It was longer than the images of lightsabers Finn had seen. 

The aliens looked at each other and stepped back. Then they murmured something, before another one of the aliens stepped back up. 

“Uh, sorry about that, we are leaving now” the alien said before they left. The woman then kept on walking, until she got close to Finn. 

She then looked at him, and he felt her. He could… fell her presence, her energy. He looked at her. It was like seeing someone familiar yet new. Like she was different from the people around her. 

Finn had grown up being told about how evil the Jedi were, but that woman didn´t seem evil. They looked at each other for a few moments before she spoke. 

“Has any new person come here a few days ago? Accompanied by another person?” she said. For a moment she looked somewhat confused before the stoicism returned to her face. 

“That´s probably me” he said. Wait, he had to elaborate. He put a hand on the back of his head “I mean, Poe, the person I’m with… I’ll take you with him. I’m Finn” 

The woman nodded and began following him as he walked without saying a word. Her body language and face showed no emotion. Is that how all Jedi were? Finn didn´t know much about them, other than their affiliation to the Republic. However, she looked a lot at their surroundings, with a weird look on her face. There was a sense of… remembrance? From her. 

“So, had you been here before?” asked Finn. Rey looked at him in the eyes for a moment. Finn thought she wasn´t going to answer, but she did. 

“There is no time for conversation as of now” she answered. She began to walk more quickly, forcing Finn to go behind her. 

Then they reached Poe and Rose. 

“Are you that Resistance pilot, Dameron? The one who got sent to retrieve some data” asked the woman. Poe looked at the ligthsaber on her waist and her clothing and opened his eyes slightly. Rey then looked at Rose. “And you are the technician, are you not?” 

“Well, I am Poe Dameron. Really hope you are here to rescue us because I would rather not be killed” Poe said. The woman did not smile. 

“Uh, yes, I am the technician” said Rose, getting up from the floor. BB-8 beeped something. 

“Good. Come with me to my ship, we are going to leave” she said, turning back. 

“And you won´t even tell us your name? Or give us some explanations?” asked Poe, following her. 

“I´m Rey, I’m a Jedi knight. I have been sent to recue you both” she quickly answered. 

“A Jedi? My mother used to tell me stories about people like you. Well, she told me stories about Luke Skywalker. Anyways-“ said Poe. 

“There will be time to speak later” interrupted Rey. Poe was about to say something else, when he started to look at the sky, just like various other people in there. What was going on? Finn raised his eyes to the sky. 

There were several black dots in the sky, getting closer and closer towards them. 

“Oh no, no” said Finn. Not the First Order, not now. He began to look around, trying to think of how to escape. 

“Come on! Follow me!” said Rey, starting to run. The group ran after her. 

It wasn´t long before the first shot came, hitting a bunch of crates. The impact almost made Finn fall to the ground. Soon enough, others followed. 

“How did they manage to find us?” asked Poe. People were screaming and hiding under whatever they could find. The shots had created various clouds of dust. And they just kept coming. 

They managed to quickly reach Rey´s ship. Rey was the first to get inside without a word, and everyone followed. 

“I´ll pilot!” said Poe, getting to the pilot seat. Rey got first and started to activate the driving controls. 

“I´ll do it, you both just try to survive” she said as the ship got off the ground. “I am going to need to lose them somewhat in order to get out of the planet” 

The ship got farther out of the village, and the First Order ships followed. They kept shooting, and Finn was going to die wasn´t he? No, he could survive there, Rey was dodging the shots. 

Finn was tightly holding on to a seat, Rose was on the seat next to him doing the same and Poe was telling instructions to Rey. 

“I am with the Force and the Force is with me, I am with the Force and the Force is with me, I am w-“mumbled Rey while she piloted. 

Finn got close to a window to look at the ships. He almost screamed when one of the shots did hit the ship, making it shake and descend slightly. 

“It´s fine, it´s fine!” screamed Rey. 

“Why can´t you lose them? I could do it” shouted Poe. 

Then Finn had a feeling. A certainty. The fear left his body, replaced with a strange peace. 

“They are tracking us” he said, and both Rey and Poe looked at him weirdly. Then Rose ran over to the ship´s terminal, checking. 

“I-he´s right. Maybe. There´s an energy signal, seems like a tracking one… but how? They couldn´t have put one, could they?” said Rose. 

“Great, now what are we going to do? We can´t just, get another ship” said Poe, putting a hand in his forehead. Finn looked out of the window, seeing the ship graveyard. 

“Or maybe we do” said Finn.


	5. Chapter 5

They rapidly landed Rey´s ship and went out of it, quickly going towards a bunch of scrap metal. They observed the First Order members going to investigate the ship, hidden between the scrap metal. They were still too close, it wouldn’t be too long before they were found there, and they needed to move soon. 

“Which ship are we going to take?” whispered Poe. A whisper wouldn´t make them harder to find but it didn´t hurt. 

“Maybe, maybe that one, the closest one” said Finn, pointing to a pretty big rectangular ship to the east of their hiding spot. It seemed in better state than the others, although it still looked as if it had been abandoned for several years. 

“We´ll have to run very fast to get there, and dodge the ships” said Poe with a hand on his chin. “Let´s hope it really is a functional ship”

“Guess we´ll have to be quick” said Rose, putting a hand on BB-8´s head. They all prepared there for a moment, just thinking. 

“Let us go” said Rey, jumping across the pile. Everyone quickly followed her. 

Almost immediately they began to be shot at. Finn ignored his fear and focused on the moment, just like he had been trained to. A good soldier went quickly through the battlefield. 

Rey was quicker and more agile than the three of them, seemingly effortlessly dodging the beams. Finn had been in a lot of training simulations similar to this, but in those he wasn´t running away from the First Order. 

Before Finn even truly realized, they were halfway to the ship, Rey on the lead. The amount of dust raised by the shots impacting the dirt made it somewhat hard to see, but the big ship could still be clearly seen. 

Then another shot landed to the side of Rose, the impact throwing her to the floor. She let out a short scream as she fell. While she tried to get up, another blaster shot was fired. Directly at her. 

Finn started to run towards her, but he wouldn´t reach her in time. Poe screamed Rose´s name. They wouldn´t reach her in time, the beam wouldn´t-

And then it stopped. The beam stopped in the middle of the air. 

What had happened? Everyone looked at it, wide eyed. Even the shots stopped. 

“Go!” screamed Rey. Finn looked at her to see she was stretching out her hand towards the beam, making an effort. Finn went towards Rose and grabbed her arm, helping her get back on her feet. They all started to move again towards the ship, and the beam impacted the floor as Rey started to go with them. 

They reached the ship and got inside of it. They all stopped for a moment to catch their breath, but started to move again as the ship shaked when it was hit. 

“I´ll drive” exclaimed Poe, before running to the cabin. They all followed him, and saw him get on the chair. The ship began to quickly rise. “Yes, this thing works!” 

As the ship began to fly Finn could see various TIE fighters through the ship´s windows. Poe dodged all the attacks, but they would soon be surrounded. 

“Everyone, go to the turrets!” screamed Poe. Suddenly his voice was that of an experienced general´s, and everyone ran out of the cabin. 

Finn somehow quickly got to the turrets. He didn´t think of how he had general turret training, but no actual experience. He just started to shoot. 

The TIE Fighters chased the mas the ship rose farther and farther into the sky, towards space. 

Poe did the hyperspace jump, getting rid of the First Order… for the time being. Finn sighed and got off the turret to return to the cabin. 

Everyone was on the cabin when he entered. Finn sat down in one of the old semi destroyed seats of the cabin, while Rey just put her hand in one of the walls, Poe kept piloting and Rose walked around the cabin, looking. They stayed silent for a while. 

“I-I do not know how they could have tracked us, how did the tracker get there?” said Rey, looking through one of the windows. 

“Maybe a traitor? Someone who infiltrated?” proposed Rose. 

“If that´s so, that has worrying implications for the Republic” said Poe. 

“With the ship gone, we cannot safely contact the Resistance. We should go to the nearest Republic planet and talk with the authorities” said Rey. 

“I say we should get to the nearest inhabited planet, in general, to get stuff” said Poe. “This ship has been on that graveyard for who knows how long, we need to get it fixed. We can worry about everything else later” 

“I agree with Poe. I haven´t seen much of the ship, but they must have abandoned it for a reson” said Rose, sitting on a chair. 

“The Republic could be in danger. We have to alert everyone as fast as possible” said Rey, crossing her arms. 

“Jakku is a rather isolated place, it´s gonna be some time until we get to any other planet. Let´s decide once we are on another system” said Finn. Both Poe and Rey were silent for a few moments and then nodded. They stayed silent for another short while. 

“I´m gonna go check the systems of the ship, see if everything´s fine, make sure it won´t explode or something” said Rose, leaving the cabin. 

“So, you are a Jedi? I hadn’t seen one in a while” asked Poe, looking at Rey. 

“Well, I am a Jedi knight. I just finished Jedi training recently, though” answered Rey. “You should focus on piloting this thing” 

“Great, we got a rookie for this very important mission” said Poe. 

“Well, I would like to talk with Rey for a second. Outside of here” said Finn, grabbing Rey´s arm and leaving the cabin into the small hallway that led there. He didn´t want to have Rey and Poe keep fighting with each other. All of them had better things to do. 

“Do you have any questions?” said Rey. 

“So…” he hadn´t thought of an actual excuse to get her out of the cabin “Why did you give me that look when you first saw me? You looked… weird” Rey looked to the side with a hand on her chin. 

“I… got a weird feeling. Reminded me of the feeling of seeing another Force sensitive person… but not exactly like it. If you were, I would be able to tell easily just by being in your presence. And there were those feelings you had earlier… I-I don’t know, I should consult with the other Jedi” said Rey. That was… strange. Finn would have to think about it. 

“Hm… so, the Jedi are good, right?” said Finn. Rey blinked a few seconds. Finn had grown up with stories about the evil and weakness of the Jedi, but maybe that wasn´t entirely accurate. Rey seemed nice. 

“Ah, yes. The New Jedi Order are peacekeepers dedicated to researching the Force and rebuilding the order after what the Galactic Empire did” said Rey, with a monotonous tone of voice that sounded like she was reciting from memory. 

“I see… so, how does that lightsaber work?” asked Finn. 

“Oh, the lightsaber?” said Rey, putting a hand on the object in her waist. “Only Force sensitive individuals can use it, it´s a powerful weapon.” 

“Yours is pretty long, I thought they were shorter… like from the images I saw” 

“This is a double bladed one” Rey walked a few steps away from Finn and activated it. It was a yellow double bladed lightsaber. “I had to teach myself how to use it from old holocrons and texts” 

“Nobody? Don´t Jedi have teachers?” 

“I… did not have a proper teacher, like the Jedi of old” Rey looked down and was silent for a moment before looking back at him. “There are not many Jedi even now, and I could not find a teacher who could teach me. Thus, I am mostly self-taught. It is not that unusual” 

“Oh…” Finn paused before continuing “Do you think we could ever spare or something? I mean, I have some melee training” 

“Hm… let´s see that later” said Rey. “But first, let me ask some questions. What do you do? You are a member of the Resistance, aren´t you?” 

“Huh… yeah. I´m Poe´s copilot, I helped him escape the First Order, yeah” Rey looked at him and nodded slowly. 

“Well, want to test your melee skills?” 

Hux was on the bridge on the First Order´s Star Destroyer, watching the people working for him. It was satisfying watching the coordination, knowing that he was advancing towards his goals, slowly but surely. From the windows of the bridge he could see Jakku. 

An officer walked towards him, and from his expression he knew that he was about to deliver bad news. The officer tried to hide it, but Hux knew. 

“General, the resistance soldiers and the stormtrooper have escaped” said the officer. Hux was right. He consciously decided to not show any emotion to the news, but he considered having the officer executed. 

“Understood, retire now” said Hux. The officer left. “Wait. You are demoted” the officer looked at him for a moment and then bowed and left. Now that was satisfying. 

And now there was the obnoxious part. Hux walked towards one of the bridge´s doors and headed to Kylo Ren´s quarters. 

He had to touch a button next to the door and wait before he could enter, like Ren was some kind of superior general, when he was just some crazy man the Moffs highly valued. But once Hux was the leader of the First Order, things would be different. 

The door opened and Hux stepped in. The room was darker than needed, probably just to make Ren more intimidating. The room itself was circular, and had little furniture outside of the collection. 

The room was covered in Empire related objects. There were old banners and holographic images on the walls, various pedestals holding pieces of weapons or armors. There were dozens of those things. And in the center there was a single pedestal holding a half melted black mask. Darth Vader´s mask. Kylo was next to it, looking at Hux. Behind him, at the end of the room, there was an hologram of a planet. 

“Greetings, Armitage” said Kylo Ren, getting closer. He probably just used his first name to spite him, and there was nothing he could really do. 

“The Resistance soldiers and the stormtrooper have escaped Jakku” said Hux. At first Ren just looked at him for a moment. Then he drew the lightsaber from his waist. For a moment Hux thought he was going to be attacked, but Ren turned around and began to hit random pieces of his room, but always avoiding the Empire objects. 

He continued like that for a while, mumbling stuff about it. Eventually, he calmed down and deactivated the lightsaber. 

“For the second time… well, you should now do your best efforts to get them. The power of the Dark Side will win eventually” 

“We will… but, I’m afraid I have a question to do here…” said Hux. He could at least spite him. 

Instead of answering, Kylo Ren simply walked towards the hologram of the planet. 

“Have you ever heard of Moraband?” asked Kylo Ren. As he said that, Hux recognized the planet on the hologram. 

“Yes” said Hux. It had been the planet of origin of the Sith. 

“Shortly after the Rebellion killed the Emperor, it… vanished. It simply disappeared” said Kylo, looking at the hologram. Why was he telling him information he already knew? 

“I see” said Hux. 

“I wonder… Is it possible it is out there, somewhere?” 

“Well, sorry to interrupt, but I have a question for you” 

“What question do you have for the Dark Lord of the Sith?” as he said that, Ren got closer and closer. 

“Are you sure you have the… strength to face them? To face your old allies?” said Hux. 

Immediately he could feel it, an intense pain, Ren´s presence. It was like a large animal tried to get inside his mind with its claws. 

“Feel, feel the power of the Dark Side. Of course I’m powerful, or do you need more lessons?” said Ren. His voice was a layer of stoicism that barely hid the rage he felt. Hux was now sweating and pale; the struggle was almost too much. He tried to move, but he found himself paralyzed and surrounded by a thin blue aura.

“Yes-yes, I understand. You are… you are Kylo Ren, Dark Lord of the Sith” said Hux. And then it stopped, all of it. He fell to the floor. 

“That´s what I like to hear. Now leave” said Ren, turning around. 

Hux got up from the floor. Someday he would punish that arrogant wizard, but that was another day.


	6. Chapter 6

They had explored the ship before going to rest. It was old, but no one was sure how old. At least a few decades old. Most rooms were empty of any furniture and filled with dust. Some parts were rusted and somewhat fallen apart, but the ship in general was still functional. It had all the necessary things for staying on there. 

“This ship needs a name if we are gonna keep using it” said Poe. 

“Anyone has any ideas?” asked Finn. 

“What about the Fighting Spirit?” suggested Rose. Rey nodded once and Poe shrugged. 

“Seems good to me” said Finn “The ship is named now” 

Eventually, everyone slept on a room of the ship, one that had several beds on the walls. Finn was used to sleeping in places like that, so it wasn´t so hard for him to fall asleep, even though he kept thinking of the First Order. 

Poe stayed awake on the cabin, Rey just sat down to meditate on the middle of the room, and Rose tried to sleep like Finn. The keyword being tried. Finn could feel her anxiety as she lay on one of the beds. 

“Hey, Finn?” she asked after some minutes. 

“Hm?” he said, opening his eyes. 

“Thanks for uh, helping me earlier when we got to the ship. You could have just not done it, so it´s appreciated” said Rose. 

“I just did what was my duty” 

“Uh, well, good night” 

Finn quickly woke up the moment the alarm began. Rey quickly broke out of her meditation and ran out of the room, with Rose and Finn followed her. 

The First Order had gotten them, they were going to die, and they were going to die. Finn took a deep breath; he had to be calm, only that way he could survive. He followed everyone. 

“It seems another ship has used a tractor beam on us. We can´t continue” said Poe, on the cabin of the ship. “However, it doesn´t seem like a First Order ship. Maybe this will go alright” 

“We have to prepare to fight” said Rey, putting a hand in her lightsaber. 

The ship´s computer indicated that a travel tube was connecting the two ships now. Poe grabbed his blaster and got out of the cabin, followed by everyone else. They walked towards the ship´s connection point. 

It opened. Finn was very aware of how he was unarmed, as was Rose. No blaster, no vibroblade and definitively no lightsaber.

As if they knew what he was thinking of, Poe and Rey got more ahead of him and Rose, covering them. The door opened completely. 

An old man and a Wookiee stepped out of the door. The old man wore a jacket and some pants, and was holding a blaster. He seemed to be in his sixties and seemed somewhat familiar. The Wookiee was holding a blaster rifle. Rey, Poe and Finn were wide eyed when they saw the pair. 

“Wait, is that-?” said Poe. 

“It´s Han Solo… Leia Organa´s husband and a Rebellion hero” whispered Rey.

“Hello everyone, I was sent to pick you up” said Han. Then he saw Poe and smiled, getting closer to him. “Poe! Long time no see”

“Oh, hello you both” said Poe, smiling as well and getting close to the two of them. Rose and Finn just looked at each other in silence. 

The Wookiee, Chewbacca most likely, said something, but Finn didn´t know the language. 

“Yeah, my dad is fine” answered Poe. 

Poe and the newcomers kept talking for a little while, with Rey and Finn observing them. Then Poe turned back to look at them. 

“Finn, Rey, these are Chewbacca and Han Solo, two friends of my family. They are also Rebellion heroes” said Poe. 

“Yeah, but Poe here explained everything so it´s fine. I was on the system with Chewie right here and Leia told me about this entire thing, so I figured I´d help out” Han said, and then pointed at everyone other than Poe while squinting. “And who are you?”

“I am Rey, from the Jedi Order. It… it is an honor to meet you sir” answered Rey. 

“There´s no need to be so formal, kid. Just call me Han” Rey smiled a little before going back to a stoic expression. 

“I’m Finn, Finn from the, uh, Resistance. I’m a longtime acquaintance of Poe” said Finn, putting on his best not suspicious face. Rose got closer to him and put a hand in his shoulder. 

“I can, uh, confirm. I’m the technician here… and also a long-term part of the Resistance, like Finn here” said Rose, giving a little smile. 

“Nice to meet you, kid. Anyways, let me look around this ship” Han and Chewbacca started to walk on the hallway and everyone followed him. 

“I´m not very good at lying” whispered Rose to Finn. 

“This is amazing, I never thought-“ said Rey to Finn, smiling, before becoming silent, coughing and going on as if nothing happened. 

“Now, this ship… is a bit of a piece of junk” said Han, running a hand through a wall. 

“Uh, we did our best to put it in good state” said Poe. 

“What were you doing around here, with a ship and all that?” asked Finn. 

“We were searching for Luke, Luke Skywalker” said Han looking down. “We… haven´t been very successful. And then Leia called” 

“I wish I could help” said Rey. 

“Well, you can´t unless you happen to have a Skywalker radar, but thanks” said Han. “Ever since he disappeared, me and Chewie have been looking from system to system” 

“What happened to him, to Skywalker?” said Finn. 

He had heard of Skywalker´s disappearance but didn´t know exactly what had happened. He had grown up with stories about his and the Rebellion´s crimes, but they were probably at least exaggerated. 

“A year ago he went to investigate an old Empire storehouse First Order territory. It was one of many storehouses that had belonged to the Emperor, but nobody had been able to open it through the years, the only one that hadn´t been opened. The rumors said he kept various rare technologies there. Luke went only with Ben, my son and his apprentice” said Han. He looked at the wall with immense sadness. “My son, Ben, he is a Jedi, he´s got the whole Force thing. One of the best Jedi, truly talented” 

“Luke... disappeared. Only Ben came back, fleeing the First Order” continued Han. “He just sort of… vanished, most likely captured by the First Order, somehow. But if they captured him, wouldn´t they have said something, anything at all?”   
"Various people looked for him, but eventually, but they gave up. Only I and Chewie remained. Back there, in the Republic, I can´t help much, but I do know how to look for someone” 

“Am I the only one who found it strange how master Organa couldn’t give any useful information?” said Rey. Han glared at Rey, slightly irritated. 

“I know my son, it´s impossible he… had any hand on his disappearance” he said. Rey looked down at the floor and kept silent. 

“Well, we should focus on where to go next” said Finn. Every moment they lost was a moment in which the First Order could catch them. 

“You know, we´re close to a place where I have some contacts, we should go there” said Han ”The planet´s name is Takodana. Allow me to pilot us there” 

“Alright, seems like a good idea” said Poe. And then someone called the ship. 

“I´ll go check in” said Han, walking towards the cabin. Everyone followed him. 

Han pressed a button in there and a small hologram of a person showed up in there. Through the windows of the ship, they saw another ship approaching. 

“Greetings, unidentified vessel. I am an officer of the United Republic Army, and we have been informed you might have been involved with criminal activities, so we will board you vessel and ask you some questions” said the hologram. The man was wearing a white uniform that covered his entire body, and he had a variation of the New Republic symbol on his chest. Finn thought the Republic had no military, but it seemed it had. 

Han slightly frowned as the soldier spoke. 

“Understood, enter in… I guess” said Han, ending the call. “I don´t think we have time to escape, we´ll have to deal with them” 

“I thought the Republic had no military? Who are these people?” asked Finn. Rose got closer to Finn. 

“They are the army being prepared by the Centralist faction of the Senate. They aren´t supposed to do any actions just yet, but it seems that has changed” explained Rose. She looked to the side and bit her lower lip. “I… don´t like the idea of them being here, even though I don´t care about the Centralists” 

“You don´t care? They could really do some serious damage to the Republic if they got in power” said Poe, crossing his arms. 

“Uh, I just… sure, things have been pretty tense lately, but I don´t believe there will be an all out civil war, no one wants another war. The most likely thing is that everyone will just put aside their differences once it´s obvious what a threat the First Order is” said Rose, stepping back. “The average Republic citizen isn´t very interested in Senate politics, they just want peace and stability. And honestly, that´s what I want too” 

“We do not have time discuss Republic politics” said Rey, crossing her arms. Everyone nodded and got out of the cabin. 

The soldiers arrived on the ship. 

It was about a dozen of them, all wearing identical uniforms. It wasn´t possible to tell any details of them, it was all covered by the uniforms. They all carried blaster rifles in their waist, a detail Finn took note of. 

“Citizens, have any of you been affiliated to the Resistance or to the Allied factions of the Senate? The people who are will be arrested immediately” said the officer as soon as he entered. 

“Why?” asked Poe. Arrested? They hadn´t done anything. 

“The Resistance and all Allied affiliated organizations will soon be reclassified as terrorist organizations” explained the officer. 

“You could say I am affiliated to the Resistance, I´m married to Leia Organa” said Han, pointing to himself. Chewbacca then grumbled something. The soldiers were silent for a moment. 

“You… are Han Solo?” asked the officer. 

“The one and only” said Han. 

“I-I just thought he looked like him, didn´t think it really was him. I didn´t know we were going to be arresting Han Solo” said one of the soldiers. 

“We can´t be arresting Han Solo, this man is a war hero!” said another. 

“Silence! I… need to think” said the officer. 

“Come on, you know you don´t want to do this. Nobody wants to arrest a Rebellion hero” said Poe, getting closer to the officer. The officer took his blaster rifle and pointed it at Poe. 

“Stay there. You are Poe Dameron, a criminal against the true Republic. You will be arrested and brought to Republic territory for trial” said the officer. 

Finn then realized Rose was gone. He hadn´t seen her leave, but she was gone. Because of the tension of the discussion, no one had focused on her. Where was she? 

“Don´t do something you´ll regret” said Poe, raising his hands. How was he so calm at the situation? The soldiers outnumbered them. 

“We can´t do this” said one of the soldiers behind the officer. 

“Only thanks to lady Carise will we have true peace and order” said the officer. Was that how stormtroopers sounded to members of the Republic? He had been raised to believe the First Order brought peace and order… Finn looked down. 

Then Rose came back through a hallway, holding a datapad in her hand and raising it high. 

“Everyone, stop! I have something to say” said Rose. Immediately, various soldiers pointed their blasters at her, and she stepped back. “Uh, I could destroy your ship right now!” 

“Explain” said the officer. What was Rose trying to do? Everyone was looking at her. 

“With this datapad, with this datapad, I can activate the ship´s turrets, making them fire at your ship” explained Rose “No need to have anyone operating the turrets” 

“That is not possible” answered one of the soldiers. 

“Wanna try?” 

“The report said there was a skilled technician in here, though” said one of the soldiers. 

“It´s new technology, alright?” said Poe. 

“This is a serious offense, threatening Republic military members, you could very well be tried and judged for this” said the officer “I will make sure that happens later” 

“Sure, sure” said Rose, giving a weak smile. They stood there in silence for a few moments. 

“Alright, we will leave, we failed today” said the officer, turning back. 

The soldiers proceeded to go back inside their ship. Once they were gone, everyone left out a sigh. 

“Rose! That was amazing! You saved us” said Poe, smiling and putting a hand in Rose´s shoulder. She put a hand on the back of her head, embarrassed. 

“Yeah, good job kid” said Han, walking back to the cabin. Chewbacca said something and BB-9 beeped. 

“It certainly was a good thing” said Rey. 

“That was great, but could you really have done it?” said Finn. 

“I mean… maybe?” said Rose, shruging “What´s important is that they are gone” 

“You are right on that” admitted Finn. 

“Well, now about that trip to Takodana…” said Han.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @C0lorStream on twitter for helping with the formatting


End file.
